Chapter 2 - The temples madness

As I and Azia were walking down the street I caught a glimpse of Tanya running in the opposite direction. Was she this late to work? "Isn't that Tanya?" Azia asked turning around to look at her. "That sure is. Seems like she forgot what today was" I snickered holding Azia by the arm.

"Don't forget that you do the same thing" Now she was the one laughing at me. My feet kept a steady pace and the sound of birds echoed in my ears.

It was a sunny day and I wanted to get ice cream so bad. The city was filled with designer shops and restaurants. Wherever you go you can't escape from the beauty of this place. "So Valerie when are you and your little boyfriend going to meet up" She mocked my tone of voice and even nudged me a little.

"First of all he isn't my boyfriend and secondly he is moving away to the capital to join one of the guilds". "What no way!? I mean I knew he had a big shot at it but this early!" Her eyes grew wide and she lay her head on my shoulder.

"I feel sorry for you. He was such a cutie as well" But I knew she didn't mean the first part. "Really? I never thought he was that cute" I uttered but my hair was getting in the way of my eyes.

I brushed my hair aside and took my phone out. I went on my call list and dialled Eleena's number. As I put the speaker on Azia looked over my shoulder to see who I had called. "Why are you calling her?" She added. "Because she is our friend and maybe if you cared about us then you would call us for once" I blurted out as I stopped walking and looked at her. "Oh come on! You know I am really busy these days".

I crossed my arms not letting go of this situation this time. "You mean busy getting drunk and sitting in your room all day playing video games" I proclaimed. Azia may be one of my best friends but she is the biggest troublemaker I know.

We continued walking when I finally dared to ask her where she was taking me. "So where are we going this time?". "To the temple. I heard something is going on over there" Her voice was calm and she kept a steady pace with me. "Do you know anything about it?".

"Nope, not a thing. Adam went there in a rush this morning so I thought I would take you there with me" She took a cigarette packet out of her pocket and a lighter. She lit up the cigarette and put it in her mouth. "I thought you quit smoking?" I mentioned.

"I tried but I couldn't do it. I guess I was too addicted to it" She let out huge puffs of smoke making me cough on the spot. "You seriously need to get yourself a therapist" I waved my hand in the air. "I know but I am too lazy to even get one".

Typical Azia and her personality. Azia had white curly hair, red lips and her skin was the beautiful colour of black. She was tall for a girl her age and she had the personality of a lion. She was fierce, brave and sly. Unlike me who always stuck with the rules, she would break them wherever she goes. For the rest of the walk, we talked about our family and how both of us didn't like them.

She explained to me how her family wants her to be serious about her education when she doesn't want to go to school and I talked about her how my parents don't even care about me and would rather focus on my brothers than me. Of course, while she was smoking I kept coughing the whole time wanting her to at least not smoke around me.

I kept calling Eleena but she wouldn't pick up the phone and all I could do was leave her a voice message. We took a left and finally arrived at the temple.

It was like a palace, grand and mesmerising. Outside was filled with the colours white and gold but the windows were usually higher up and weren't seen on the ground floor. "You better put out that cigarette before lady Lorence ends up killing you for it" I spoke in a peaceful tone of voice. "So what!? That woman can't do a single thing to me" She barked.

In the distance lady Lorence approached us holding a staff and walking elegantly while the other ladies followed behind her. "Hello ladies, how are you both doing today?" She smiled innocently. "We are doing good lady Lorence.

Is this a bad time for us to be here?" I knew something had happened in the temple but if lady Lorence was speaking to us as the head woman of the temple then it may be a bad time for us to be here. "No of course not. The temple is free for anyone to come inside" She gestured us to come inside as she signalled her ladies to go somewhere else. We stepped inside the temple's marble tiles to see chandeliers and glass mosaics.

The colour of white and gold shinned the whole temple and banners were hanging from the walls. A stage was seen in the distance and chairs were all lined up for people to come in.

"Also Azia can you please take out that cigarette from your mouth. It will ruin your health you know" She winked at me as I giggled a little. "Fine!" She takes the cigarette out of her mouth and rubs it against a bowl. "See Azia it's not that hard now is it" I said sarcastically.

She groaned in anger looking in the other direction. As we followed lady Lorence I gazed at all the young women hurrying to finish their work.

Some blessed the weak and others were praying to the gods. We walked up the staircases and were led to a small room located in one of the hallways. Lady Lorence opened the door as we stepped towards the inside of the room. When she closed the door we sat on one of the wooden chairs right in front of her work desk. She soon sat down behind her desk and drew in some breaths. "So you ladies must have come in because of Adam is that correct?" She enquired.

Me and Azia both looked at each other wondering if we were in trouble. "I guess so. Adam was running to the temple this morning because something had happened so me and Valerie went to go see what the problem was" Azia spoke for me and leaned back on the chair folding her arms together. "Oh, I see. As long as you girls haven't told anyone else then everything will be alright" She laid her staff on the desk and let us examine it. "This staff has been carried down from priestess to priestess for centuries".

Her voice was soothing and warm. "But yesterday an intruder had been spotted in hallway A trying to steal it". "Someone tried to steal it!? But why?" I was shocked and puzzled at the same time. "Because whoever gets a hold of this staff will be able to do things that not even a normal creature could do" She put the staff back on the ground and watched us closely.

"Well that is surprising indeed but why tell us? I mean do you suspect us of doing it or something?" Azia finally spoke after a long time. Lady Lorence stopped smiling and held her hand to a fist. "I don't suspect any of you but I think someone close to you may know something about it".

I gave off a nervous laugh. "You are not serious are you? I mean why would our friends want to do something like that?" I tried to reassure her but Azia seemed to be on her side. "Valerie it may seem impossible but I agree with lady Lorence.

What if it was one of our friends" Azia held my hand tightly. I stood up knocking the chair down with rage and fury. The wind howled in my ears and the room felt as if it was closing in on me. "I am sorry for being rude lady Lorence but do you have any evidence to even show me that what you say is true?" I squinted my eyes ignoring Azia.

"I do not have physical evidence but I had received a prophecy late at night by the gods saying that someone close to you is indeed using you for something that could destroy this temple" She gestured for me to sit down but I didn't want to. What she was saying didn't even make any sense and none of my friends were even dangerous people.

"Well once you find some actual evidence then you can show me" I gritted my teeth and walked towards the door opening it slightly while Azia followed my lead. Lady Lorence stood up in a flash pulling her hand forward. "If you want evidence then you better follow me" Her voice was cold like ice.

She picked up her staff and slowly walked towards the door leaving her room. Me and Azia didn't know if we should follow her but in my head, I wanted to know why she would suspect any of our friends. As lady Lorence guided our way to whatever she wanted to show us Azia whispered something to my ear. "Do you think what she is saying is true?".

"How am I supposed to know? I mean someone tried to steal her staff for a reason that dumb" I whispered back. Azia handed me a piece of paper. "What is this?" I asked. "It was a piece of paper I found on lady Lorence's desk. Last night a couple of women from the temple went missing when trying to steal the staff" She giggled in excitement.

"You shouldn't have stolen that! If she finds out what you did we will be in big trouble dumbass!" I bumped her shoulder as she bellowed in pain. Lady Lorence turned her eyes to us. "You ladies better not think of a plan of escaping because I will find you" Both me and Azia jumped when we heard what she said. She may be a kind priestess but she was also very scary when she is serious about something.

I met lady Lorence when I was a kid. I was at one of my family's parties when I went to the balcony to see lady Lorence in stress. I asked her what was wrong and we started to talk about her problems. So we kind of got close and whenever we went to get blessed I wouldn't let anyone touch me except lady Lorence.

My feet started to ache after a couple of minutes and soon we stopped in front of a wall. "Why are we here? It is a dead-end" Azia leaned against a wall. "This may be a dead-end but to me, it's a secret passageway" Lady Lorence stepped in front of the wall and pressed the stones on the wall. One on the left, One on the right, One on the middle, One below her elbow and One right in front of her face. Then the wall started to rumble and the wall opened up to show stairs leading down to whatever was waiting for us there.

"Yea I am not going down there" Azia protested.

"You will. Unless you want me to tell your father about where you were this morning" She smirked strolling down the stairs. "What!?" Azia looked for me to say something but I just continued to follow lady Lorence. "This here used to be a meeting for the gods where they would discuss matters of the galaxy" Lady Lorence took her phone out and used it as a flashlight.

"Why would the gods end up meeting in this place?" Azia put her finger on her nose disgusted by the smell. "Because this place was a safe haven for them. It was granted as a gift by an unknown god". We then reached the bottom where she led us to a huge room. It was all made of stone and there in the middle was a circular table with chairs surrounding it. On the table was a big map of all the different countries surrounding the borders.

"Who knew these gods loved maps so much" Azia ran her hand through the map. "Well, the gods needed to go where their destination was. So to do that this map would give them the precise place" She touched the chairs delicately one by one holding her staff in the other hand. I was mesmerized by what I saw.

As a kid, I was a fan of mythologies and stories about the gods. I would stay up night and day just going to the library and finding books about them. "How could they tell where to go? I mean these maps don't show the cities or capitals" I proclaimed. Lady Lorence laughed softly putting a hand on my shoulder. "The gods had a power that could activate these maps.

A 3D map could be seen with mountains and hills and even the smallest details". I was amazed by what I heard.

I never knew the gods would meet up to discuss and nowhere in books has it said about this place. "Hey, lady Lorence what is all this?" Azia was standing near a wall touching it with her rough fingers. Lady Lorence strode towards her chuckling once again. "This here is the story about a prophecy that will soon be told". "What kind of story?" My voice was low as I felt a lump in my throat. "If you want to know then you better look at this wall.

This wall was painted by the God of colours to tell us about the future of what may happen soon before the gods went into hiding". We stared at the wall seeing the colours and designs that made the room look more lively. "One night when the gods came to meet up at this place the God of Time had a vision of the future.

She had said that soon the world will be destroyed because of a creature of death and destruction. All the gods were terrified with fear which meant they had no chance of defeating that creature. The God of Peace and Loyalty calmed the others down and asked the God of Time if there was any way that the creature could be destroyed.

The God of Time said that the only way for the creature to be destroyed was that in a thousand years a person will be born and that if the Gods had blessed that person they may receive a power from each of the Gods to take down the creature. So they had all decided that the God of Life will create an orb and once it had been completed the Gods will enter a small amount of power into it. But the other Gods had a suspicion of the God of Death. The creature was made out of destruction and death.

So the others thought that the God of Death may have created that creature to go against the others. But the God of Life reassured the others that the God of Death would never do such a thing. Once the orb was completed each God put their power into it but something happened once completed. The orb started to take in more of their powers.

It took their energy one by one but the God of War shattered the orb before it could destroy them. That is when the God of Beauty told everyone that it was the God of Life's fault and that they wanted to steal their powers for themself and the God of Death.

They were all convinced it was their doing and the God of spirits executed the God of Life.

Yet the God of Death was able to escape and took their revenge on everyone. That is why the war happened and so the Gods went into hiding one by one because of the prophecy until the God of colours was the last one left and painted this story on the wall for the creatures like us not to forget about what had happened".

Me and Azia stood there shocked from our minds. That story went dark quickly. I mean The God of Death was accused of creating a monster when there was no pure evidence that it was even them and also killing the God of life.

I felt so sorry for both of them. No matter how many times lady Lorence would tell that story I would always feel a sense of sadness. I held my hands together and glanced at the wall once again. The God of Colours put a lot of detail into it.

Every God looked more beautiful than the last. "Lady Lorence may I ask you something?" I uttered. "Of course Valerie, anything you wish to know I will tell you" She went back to the map and observed it carefully. "If the Gods of Life and Death are both gone how will life function without them?".

"That is a good question Valerie. Well from what I remember the God of Beauty took over the role of death and the God of War took the role of life".

"That is dumb as hell! How can a God of War be able to take the role of Life when its purpose is to be a God of War" Azia snarled as she put her hands in her pocket. "I do not have an answer for that but for now we are safe" Lady Lorence reassured Azia but I knew she didn't take it well.

"Well, I have to go now, ladies. I have a meeting with one of the priests in another temple so I want you girls to keep it a secret okay. I don't want anyone else to know about this because only priests and priestesses are allowed to know that kind of information okay?".

"Yes Lady Lorence" Both me and Azia said synchronizing with each other. Before she could leave the room I asked her a question. "Why would you tell us this?".

She turned around and looked into my eyes. For the last time, she smiled at me and gave me a wink for goodbye. "Because maybe you can change that" Those were her last words until she walked back upstairs to go to her meeting.

"That was the most shittiest thing I heard in all my life don't you think?" Azia nudged my shoulder. "Let's just say one of the craziest things I heard in all my life". Me and Azia went back to the main temple trying to figure out what we had both just witnessed.

I knew lady Lorence wasn't lying about something like this but what did the staff have to do with the gods. Then I remembered about the orb. When observing the staff on the table there was a piece of gold glass inlaid on the staff.

What if the orb in the story was inside the staff and the reason why she was worried about someone trying to steal it was because it would give them the powers of a god that could danger the world. But the question was still on my mind. What did my friends have to do with it? Unless it was part of the prophecy then I don't know a single thing. A million questions wondered in my head.

"Next time when we go to the temple remind me to stay away from lady Lorence" Azia begged. That was when Eleena was seen running towards us. She was holding her bag and looked as if she didn't have time to get ready. Her hair was messy and was pink like cotton candy. Her eyes are a pink bubblegum colour and her skin was also the colour of pink. To be honest her whole body was covered in pink that I would even forget if she was a creature or not. She put her hair in a messy bun and wore a cardigan. "I need your guy's help!" She shrieked.